ELIZABETHTON — There will still be a couple of days of spring break for the students of the Carter County School System.
The board had considered eliminating the entire spring break holiday of March 10-14 and making them school days. Instead the board voted to keep Thursday, March 13, and Friday, March 14, as spring break, while changing Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, March 10-12, as regular class days. The board also made Feb. 17 a regular school day instead of virtual instruction day for students.
Those moves add four additional school days to the calendar, which has been hit hard by the days the schools were forced to close because of the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene and by the snow and cold weather during the first three weeks of January.
So many days have been missed that the board was considering taking the entire spring break and changing the days to regular instruction days. Director of Schools Brandon Carpenter told the board that he had also considered recommending the elimination of the entire spring break. Instead, he decided to recommend the compromise schedule of allowing March 13 and March 14 as spring break days because of the importance of family time.
“I feel this has been a trying time for the kids and their parents. They have been through a 500-year flood,†Carpenter told the board. He said many families had planned and then forced to cancel their fall break holidays because of the difficult times immediately after Hurricane Helene.
Carpenter said it is important to get the students into the schools as much as possible. He told the board “we have some things planned. We have a few grants we are hoping to hear from that will enable us to do some after school programs ... We are going to roll out some things in the next couple of weeks and see how those go down.â€
Dylan Hill, board member for the 8th District, asked Carpenter how the reduction of class days would impact certification for career technical education. Carpenter answered that the loss of hours could impact CTE certification, but said the courses at the consolidated CTE center operate “almost like a college course†and some students get their time in regardless of the times school is in session. Hill was told there are other opportunities to get those hours accomplished during the summer. Carpenter said there are also opportunities on Saturdays and weekends. He said the instructors understand the students need to get a certain number of hours accomplished.
The board voted 7-0 in favor of the change in the calendar, with Hill abstaining. Tony Garland, board member for the 5th District, noted that the board had the right to take more days for class time if more days are missed by continued bad weather during the remainder of the winter.
